Korean Job Discussion Forums

cruisemonkey · Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 11:21 pm Post subject:

Yeah, Discovery Channel is good, however, the replays of every show ad nauseum can make one insane... but Arirang? ANYTHING is better than the crap on Arirang: Animal Planet, National Gegraphic, History Channel, Q Channel, BBC World, ABC, Living Asia Channel, Armed Forces Network, OCN, On, On Plus... hell, even the sappy movies they show on Hallmark or... wrestling! Wink

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

itaewonguy · Joined: 25 Mar 2003

endo · Joined: 14 Mar 2004 Location: Seoul...my home

ajgeddes · Joined: 28 Apr 2004 Location: Yongsan

ryouga013 · Joined: 14 Sep 2007

stillnotking · Joined: 18 Dec 2007 Location: Oregon, USA

There isn't much dispute, really, archaeological research has shown conclusively that the pyramids were not built by slaves. They were built by skilled, well-paid, professional Egyptian workers.

Why does everyone believe the slave story? Because Hebrew cultural myth-making created the story of the captivity, the Exodus, etc., and one of the embellishments to that story was that Jewish slaves built the pyramids. (The pyramids were famous even in those days.) None of it is actually true; the Exodus story was made up out of whole cloth centuries after the fact, and the Egyptians didn't keep Jewish slaves in any numbers.

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

tomato · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:56 pm Post subject:

According to this Website:

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/questionable-cause.html

this is a questionable cause fallacy.

I once met a Persian who defended the custom of women wearing veils.
He said that women should be attracted to men rather than men attracted to women.
He pointed out that men are attracted to women in our culture and our culture has a higher divorce rate.
Of course the two cultures differ in those two variables, but don't you think they differ in a few other variables also?

Related to this fallacy is the chicken-and-egg dilemma.
I have read a book which argued that magic is real, and that poverty is an unintended side effect of magic.
His evidence is that magic is practiced more in poor countries.

Let us call magic A.
Let us call poverty B.
The author claimed that A causes B.

But couldn't the people of poor countries resort to magic with hopes of alleviating their poverty?
In such a case, B would cause A.

Or couldn't lack of technology cause both magical practice and poverty?
In such a case, C would cause both A and B.

I've heard a joke about a person who claimed that peanuts were fattening.
The person asked, "Have you ever seen a skinny elephant?"

But that was a joke.
In the case which you mention, the argument is meant to be taken seriously.

tomato · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 4:16 pm Post subject:

Have you ever seen such slowpokes?
It took the children of Israel 40 years to reach the Holy Land from Egypt--
a distance of 200 miles.
That's 5 miles a year.

A giant turtle walks at a speed of .2 miles per hour.
That means a giant tortoise can travel that distance in 1000 hours.
If the children of Israel travelled 12 hours a day at the speed of a giant tortoise,
they could have made it in 3 months.

A snail slides at a speed of .03 miles per hour.
That means that a snail can travel that distance in 6667 hours.
Again assuming 12 hours a day,
they could have made it in 4 years.

Ilsanman · Joined: 15 Aug 2003 Location: Bucheon, Korea

Arirang is the devil!!

Seriously, such ignorance shouldn't even be allowed on TV>

Justin Hale · Joined: 24 Nov 2007 Location: the Straight Talk Express

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

Ah another great corporate video masquerading as real content on Arirang. Behold the Masai walking shoes. Probably the new earthshoes. You're probably seen these stores popping up around Seoul.

These shoes are claimed to help you walk like a Masai in Africa. Why? Well, see, Masai have very straight spines and low incidents of geriatric diseases (ummm probably because they don't live long enough to become geriatrics? I noticed since Koreans started wearing these shoes the threat of giant lobster attacks has been eliminated!)

But what! There's clinical evidence. They put a guy on a treadmill and measured calories burned etc at a Korean lab. First they measure him wearing normal runners. Then the Masai walking shoes. Wouldn't you know, when the guy is wearing the Masai walking shoes he burns more calories.
Hrm. Maybe because he knows he's wearing the Masai walking shoes so he walks more briskly?

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

Arirang just advanced the old canard about Korea and seasons. The host states "not many nations have four distinct seasons like Korea!" How about all of them except for those in the tropics?

Oish. Look, Canadians aren't all running around telling each other there's something special about Canada because the Congo doesn't have 4 seasons. Geez.

Ever mention to a Korean that, like, your nation has four seasons and then they argue back "well, only Korea has 4 seasons of equal length" or some such quibbling.